The Gruen Transfer by Danial Carroll is a role playing game supplement published by Chaosium Inc. through the Miskatonic Repository Community Content Programme for use with Call of Cthulhu, the horror role playing game based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. This is a modern-day scenario.
The supplement is available as a 22 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover and one the front matter.
The Introduction states that this is a scenario suitable for a single session and the focus is survival, not investigation. Though it is set in a fictional mall, the Keeper could move it to a specific one.
Keeper Information explains that a group of grave robbers were temporarily possessed by beings known as Night Shamblers several years ago. They enjoyed the experience and their latest attempt to replicate it involves gassing everyone in a shopping mall. The timeline is given here as well.
Introducing the Investigators explains that it would make little sense for an existing group to all survive the attack, so a random group makes more sense. There are six pre-generated investigators who are all in the mall; two are with partners, which is not good for either.
The Mall gives an overview of the locations in the shopping mall, including a map.
From this point on, characters will come to in random locations, possibly finding themselves with dead people. They will need to deal with the killers and stop their ceremony if possible. A d6 table has results for inspiring those who would rather hide into moving themselves. There are details on a Mythos tome, the Night Shamblers and the killers, followed by a player-friendly map of the mall.
The final 12 pages of the supplement are the character sheets for the pre-generated investigators.
The Gruen Transfer in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. The only illustrations are the map and portraits of the different investigators. Presentation is okay.
As it states in the text, this adventure is ill-suited for an existing group. The investigators are the only survivors of the attack – though mention is made of finding more survivors, either to comprise the hiding spots of investigators or replace a fallen one – and for them to know each other would be far-fetched. Possible explanations for this are given. This does work better as a one-shot or, and for this it perhaps even works better, as a way of getting a group of investigators together. Existing investigators may already know more of what’s going on; new ones would be provided an excuse for teaming up after discovering Mythos involvement in the attack and choosing to learn more. The Gruen Transfer is a decent little scenario – though it’s totally unclear what the title refers to – and it can be found by clicking here.
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